File photo of Shardul Thakur© X (Twitter)
India seamer Shardul Thakur claimed a hat-trick for Mumbai against Meghalaya in a must-win Ranji Trophy match at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy on Thursday. Opening the bowling for Mumbai after the side chose to bowl first against Meghalaya, Thakur dismissed Anirudh B, Sumit Kumar, and Jaskirat in the third over before dismissing Nishant Chakraborty on the fourth ball of the innings. He became the second bowler to take a hat-trick in the 2024/25 Ranji Trophy season after Himachal Pradesh’s Rishi Dhawan against Pondicherry. Moreover, the 33-year-old became the fifth bowler from Mumbai to take a hat-trick in the Ranji Trophy history.
Other four bowlers are Jehangir Behramji Khot (Bombay) vs Baroda in 1943/44, Umesh Narayan Kulkarni (Bombay) vs Gujarat in 1963/64, Abdul Moosabhoy Ismail (Bombay) vs Saurashtra in 1973/74 and Royston Harold Dias (Mumbai) vs Bihar in 2023/24 season.
In seven matches thus far this season, Thakur has registered 20 wickets and 297 runs with a century and two fifties.Besides Thakur’s 4-14, Mohit Avasthi took two wickets as Mumbai reduced Meghalaya to 29-6 in 12 overs.
Placed third in Group A, Mumbai will require to win the ongoing match by an innings or 10 wickets to secure the bonus point. That will tie them with J&K (29 points) with Baroda placed second at (27 points).
Mumbai will be hoping that either J&K or Baroda doesn’t earn more than one point from their final-round match in Vadodara.
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